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DePalma crime family
The New Jersey Mob, also known as the DePalma crime family, is an Italian-American criminal organization operating in North New Jersey and other neighboring areas of the state. Undeterred by operating on the west side of the Hudson River, the New Jersey family has retained strong relations with other crime families in New York City. The mob is notorious for its violence and in many ways has been one of the most dysfunctional Mafia families in America, predominantly due to having a succession of very violent bosses and having multiple mob wars. It has also been categorized as one of the most active Mafia families outside of the New York area, having been known to hold territory or influence in other localities outside the northern portion of New Jersey, including South Jersey and Florida. Its illicit activities encompass: extortion, racketeering, fraud, conspiracy, loan sharking, money laundering, drug trafficking, hijacking, illegal gambling and murder. Italian-American organized crime in New Jersey can trace its roots back to a bootlegging gang formed by Filippo Carsano and other Italian immigrants in 1925. However, it wasn't until the reign of Gaetano DePalma in 1962 after a short-lived power struggle between two rival factions, that the New Jersey mob was recognized as an autonomous crime family. DePalma's relatively peaceful stint as boss came to an end when he was incarcerated in 1973, appointing Stefano Majuri as the acting boss. The family suffered a tailspin when Majuri sanctioned the murders of three significant members within his own ranks: Emmanuel Rocca, Giovanni Zaza and Philip Cordasco, as acts of solidifying his permanent reign as boss. During the late months of 1975, Majuri was indicted under conspiracy to commit murder. The mob then saw a fleeting tenure with former consigliere Anthony Staiti appointed as boss before he was murdered in 1977. The leadership fell to members of the family’s powerful Elizabeth faction, in particular Bruno Gioeli. It was under Gioeli’s term that the New Jersey mob fell into further disarray, after he was sentenced to life in prison for his role in the murder of Phil Cordasco three years earlier. In the early 1980s, the New Jersey crime family stabilized under Gioeli’s trusted confidante Eugene Sapienti, however its return to solidity proved to be short-lived. In 1986 Sapienti’s body was found in the trunk of a stolen car in Newark; his murder being the catalyst for what became known as “The War of ‘86”. During the bitter mob war the family split into factions loyal to Victor Putorti, who had attempted to stage a palace coup and those affiliated with Sapienti’s cousin, Tino Rosa. The internal power struggle ended when Putorti was murdered later that year. Rosa then took over a family that had been decimated by war, although with the help of his underboss, Patrick LeConte, they were able to replenish the ranks. The family enjoyed a peaceful four years under the two, despite Rosa being sentenced to life in prison in 1987. The peace came to an end when LeConte was murdered along with several of his loyalists in 1990 by members of the family’s Sicilian faction. The murder of LeConte had a devastating effect on the New Jersey mob after caporegime Giovanni Pitera turned state’s evidence. Pitera’s testimony led to the convictions of several high ranking mobsters and caused an ensuing conflict which concluded when Joseph Lombardo was murdered, allegedly on orders of South Jersey based boss, Dominick Bonina. The beginning of Bonina’s reign proved to be one of the New Jersey mob’s most productive time periods since the 1960s. Under the new boss, the family were able to expand operations in Atlantic City and even into South Florida, where the family hadn't had a significant presence in the area since the Cingolani days. However, the mid-1990s saw a change in organized crime beyond Bonina’s control. The introduction of a new generation of mobsters saw that the days of the old guard were numbered. The beginning of the end for Bonina started in 1994 when both Ernest Ippoliti and Angelo Spina were murdered. The murders created something of a distrust between crews in the family, most notably with the younger faction that was led by Joey Lutro, and like many had predicted, caused more internal warfare for the third time in the New Jersey crime family’s short but extensive history. After a two year battle for control of the family, Lutro’s crew, dubbed the 'Young Turks', replaced the old guard at the top of the mob once Bonina was murdered along with his close associates. In 1996, Lutro officially became boss of the family. He was considered by the media to be a young, flashy gangster that loved the spotlight and drew too much attention to himself. It was for those reasons that Lutro instated Luca Brando as a front boss in order to deceive law enforcement and other mobsters to who was actually running the family. The federal authorities began to crackdown on the family by 1999 and a number of high profile mobsters were sent to jail, including Faffy DePreta, Vinny Oliveri and Lutro himself, which ultimately put the family in a state beyond repair. Early Origins In the early 20th century, several Italian-American street gangs in New Jersey converged to form what would later become known as the New Jersey crime family. Filippo Carsano was considered the first leader of this group. Carsano was an immigrant from Valledolmo, Sicily, who had arrived in New York City in 1919. He and several other Sicilians fled to New York in order to avoid prosecution for murdering a wealthy landowner that had ties to Cesare Mori—the head of Special Forces against brigandage in Palermo at the time. After settling in Manhattan’s East Harlem neighborhood Carsano began working for notorious mobster Carmine Ferrara, an alleged member of Carlo Romanello’s infamous 116th Street gang. It was under Ferrara’s regime that the young Carsano was sent to Ducktown in New Jersey’s Atlantic City, to establish connections with the various Italian-American gangs in the area. The 1920s proved to be a chaotic period for the American Mafia, not only in New York City but in New Jersey too. Sources say that between 1920 and 1925 there were over two hundred homicides related to organized crime. It was around this time that Carsano joined forces with another local hoodlum, Charles “Corky” Tocco, to form their own organization without interference from the New York crime families and partook in activities such as bootlegging, extortion, loan sharking and gambling. Carsano headed organized crime in the Garden State throughout the late 1920s and into the 1930s but was murdered by members of his own organization late in 1939. The murder of New Jersey’s capo de facto resulted in a fight for control of the local mob. The conflict continued up until Carsano’s underboss Charles Tocco was found murdered in his home, a hit Antonio “Nino” Navarra allegedly orchestrated. After the two murders, the mob’s leadership fell to Gennaro “The Baker” Merola. Under Merola’s reign the New Jersey mob expanded their operations, involving themselves in drug trafficking and bid rigging. According to organized crime experts in the late 1940s, Merola had been withholding profits from his drug operation and it wasn’t long before word got back to leading mob bosses in New York. Vincenzo “Cheech” Farace—a known member of Merola’s mob—was said to have gone to New York to meet with Giuseppe Marino in order to form a coup. With the backing of Marino, Farace arranged the murder of his boss. On January 24, 1951, Cheech’s hit team entered Merola’s Belpasso Bakery in Elizabeth, New Jersey and shot him to death. The public assassination of Merola catapulted Farace and his second-in-command Nino Navarra to the top of New Jersey’s mob hierarchy, where they remained in power for the majority of the 1950s. Farace enhanced the strength of his organization by introducing a street tax on criminals of any ethnicity that were operating in his territory and sanctioned murders on anybody who opposed his rulings. However, Farace’s control soon began to diminish once the Federal Bureau of Investigation had gathered copious amounts of evidence against his drug trafficking operation, and as a result went under indictment. After several bouts of court cases, he was deported back to Italy in 1959, leaving the mob in New Jersey without a leader, or any clear organization. The Seventh Avenue Crew In 1960, after the deportation of Farace, several organized crime groups in New Jersey came to prominence. Among these groups were the Seventh Avenue crew which included; Gaetano DePalma, Giacomo DePalma, James Cingolani, Thomas Badami, Andrew Belsito, Emmanuel Rocca, Stefano Majuri and Giovanni Zaza. Although at the time there hadn’t been a decided leader, the crew would often get together in order to make big decisions related to mob activities at a social club owned by Dino Santorelli on 7th Avenue in Newark, called “The Ribera Social Club”. It was at this location that the group participated in illegal gambling, loan sharking, extortion and drug trafficking. By 1961 the Seventh Avenue crew had began to expand in size at an alarming rate for local authorities. Many young Italian-American mobsters such as Joseph LaSelva, John Cingolani, Girolamo Majuri, Anthony Staiti, and Ilario Sessa were beginning to make a name for themselves in New Jersey’s organized crime circles. Due to their rapid swell in numbers, the crew’s influence in the Garden State started to increase. They soon took control of areas in Jersey City, Elizabeth and Union City through sheer intimidation. Operating out of a car garage in Springfield, the Cingolani faction controlled much of south Newark and Union City. Badami and Majuri were situated in Elizabeth while the DePalma brothers held greater authority in the northern portion of Newark and Jersey City. The First War Historical Leadership of the DePalma Family Bosses (official and acting) • 1925–1939 — Filippo “Phil” Carsano (murdered) • 1939–1951 — Gennaro “The Baker” Merola (murdered) • 1951–1962 — Vincenzo “Cheech” Farace (deported in 1959, deceased in 1962) • 1962–1976 — Gaetano “The Eagle” DePalma (deceased) • Acting 1973–1975 — Stefano “Steve the Trucker” Majuri (imprisoned) • 1976–1977 — Anthony “Tony States” Staiti (murdered July 12, 1977) • 1977–1990 — Bruno “Big Bruno” Gioeli (imprisoned for life) • Acting 1979–1986 — Eugene “Gene Aboudamita” Sapienti (murdered November 20, 1986) • Acting 1986–1987 — Tino “The Cowboy Don” Rosa (imprisoned for life) • Acting 1987–1990 — Patrick “Minnesota Pat” LeConte (murdered January 5, 1990) • 1990–1996 — Dominick “Curly” Bonina (murdered May 25, 1996) • 1996–present — Joseph “Little Joey” Lutro (imprisoned in 1999) • Acting 1999–present — Undecided Underboss (official and acting) • 1925–1939 — Charles “Corky” Tocco (murdered) • 1939–1951 — Vincenzo “Cheech” Farace (became boss) • 1951–1962 — Antonio “Nino” Navarra (murdered) • 1962–1973 — Emmanuel “Manny” Rocca (murdered June 11, 1973) • 1973–1977 — Joseph “Uncle Joe” LaSelva (imprisoned) • 1977–1978 — John “Johnny Boy” Cerutti (imprisoned) • 1978–1986 — Eugene “Gene Aboudamita” Sapienti (became acting boss) • Acting 1979–1986 — Victor “Schnookums” Putorti (murdered November 22, 1986) • 1986–1987 — Patrick “Minnesota Pat” LeConte (allegedly controlled the family for Rosa) • 1987–1990 — Joseph “Joe Padula” Lombardo (murdered January 14, 1990) • 1990–1991 — Ciro “Sonny Red” Gargotta (murdered February 1, 1991) • 1991–1994 — Ernest "Magoo" Ippoliti (murdered April 6, 1994) • 1994–1996 — Gregory Saietta (died of natural causes in prison) • 1996–present — Francis “Faffy” DePreta (imprisoned) • Acting 1999–present — Undecided Consigliere (official and acting) • 1925–1962 — Unknown • 1962–1967 — Thomas “TB” Badami (imprisoned in 1967) • 1967–1977 — Stefano “Steve the Trucker” Majuri (became acting boss) • Acting 1973–1976 — Anthony “Tony States” Staiti (became boss) • 1977–1981 — Joseph “Uncle Joe” LaSelva (alleged consigliere) • 1981–1986 — Carmine “Charlie Bookworm” Rasso (imprisoned in the early 1980s) • 1986–1990 — Natale “The Baron” Turrisi (fled to Sicily to avoid a murder conviction) • 1990–1994 — Gregory “Greg” Saietta (became underboss) • 1994–1997 — Howard “Howie” LoCascio (imprisoned) • 1997–present — Ralph Cambria (imprisoned in 1999) • Acting 1999–present — Undecided Caporegimes (official and acting) Newark, New Jersey (other territories in Miami, Florida) • Unknown-1967 — James “Mad Dog” Cingolani (took over rackets in Florida) • Acting 1961-1962 — Andrew “Two Bellies” Belsito (murdered February 16, 1962) • 1967-1972 — Joseph “Uncle Joe” LaSelva (became underboss) • 1972-1973 — Philip “Philly Brass” Cordasco (murdered May 30, 1973) • 1975-1977 — John “Johnny Boy” Cerutti (imprisoned) • Acting 1977-1979 — Peter “PC” Casasanto (became official) • 1979-1981 — Peter “PC” Casasanto (imprisoned) • 1981-1982 — Giacomo “Jackie” DePalma (imprisoned) • 1982-1986 — Tino “Tony Roach” Rosa (became acting boss) • 1986-1987 — Joseph “Joe Padula” Lombardo (murdered January 14, 1990) • 1987-1990 — Giovanni “Johnny Fulton” Pitera (witness protection program) • 1990-1991 — Ernest “Magoo” Ippoliti (became underboss) • 1991-1996 — Joseph “Little Joey” Lutro Peterstown, New Jersey • Unknown-1975 — Thomas “TB” Badami (imprisoned in 1967) • Acting 1967–1973 — Stefano “Steve the Trucker” Majuri (imprisoned) • 1975–1977 — Bruno “Big Bruno” Gioeli (became boss) • 1977–1978 — Eugene “Gene Aboudamita” Sapienti (became underboss) • 2018-2019 — The "Ched" Man (became acting boss) • Acting 1978–1979 — Victor “Schnookums” Putorti (became acting underboss) • 1979–1981 — Carmine “Charlie Bookworm” Rasso (imprisoned) • 1981-1987 — Joseph "Joe Baciagaloop" Baldino (imprisoned) • 1987-1989 — John "JB" Brancaccio (murdered) • 1989-1990 — Gaspare "Gas" Turrisi (sentenced to life) • 1990-present — Unknown Miami, Florida • 1967-1970 — James “Mad Dog” Cingolani (murdered) • Acting 1970-1972 — Tino “The Cowboy Don” Rosa • 1970-present — Unknown